And The Writer Is...with Ross Golan - Ep. 80: J Kash...Stays At Home

Episode Date: April 14, 2020

Today we catch up with a prolific Season 1 guest who is a Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum, songwriter and producer. He has written multiple hit songs, including “Memories,” “Sugar”, and “Don’t Wanna Know” by Maroon 5, “Attention” and “How Long” by Charlie Puth, “Look What God Gave Her” by Thomas Rhett, “No” and “Me Too” by Meghan Trainor, and recently co-wrote Katy Perry’s new single “Never Worn White” as well as “Feel Myself” for Selena Gomez’s new album ‘Rare’. And The Writer Is… J Kash!Please join us to help keep the music community alive and thriving, giving it as much as it gives us. To donate or to apply for assistance visit the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund site: https://www.grammy.com/musicares/get-help/musicares-coronavirus-relief-fundWatch this video interview on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/andthewriteris or on Instagram at @andthewriteris. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey guys, we are doing a few updates here with our alumni who we love dearly. And we hope all of you guys are staying healthy, safe, and staying at home during this quarantine. And hope you enjoy listening to a few of our previous guests telling you what's been going on in their life since they did their interview. Here are some updates for the quarantine versions. of and the writer is. I'm just trying to get in a less fat position. Just when I press record. That's perfect.

It's fine. Hold on. That's good. That's good. Well, that's got. Well, you've been doing like a ton of live streams. Are you enjoying being an Instagram live influencer? I'm waiting for tummy tea to hit me up.

Yeah. And tell me they want me to endorse. them. No, I actually hate it. But you do it. Why do you do it? Well, you know, not to like toot my own horn or anything, but like I feel like there had been a time and a place in my life where I would want to meet me or someone where I'm at. I was there, you know, and being isolated for this corona shit and everybody's staying home anyway. I was like, all right, cool. What can I do for like i mean it's like a lot of songwriters sorry i'm skipping around a little bit but like for us it's like i'm like oh shit what's going to happen with these katy perry songs when when am i going to do

when am i going to work on this maroon five album that's like in the works like when is me and charlie pooth going to do this and that and those are like first world problems right um are you there yeah i'm here i'm listening you're so still i thought you were frozen How do you do that? Anyway, but then I started thinking about like, what is really fucked up. I mean, look, obviously this shit's fucked up for everybody, but I'm thinking about my community, right, of musicians.

And I'm like, man, it's really fucked up for songwriters who are like, who are like have momentum going into like maybe getting their first deal or maybe getting their first placement or just getting in a stride with those people that are starting to give them looks and their names getting around. LA and getting the e-break pulled on you then is way worse than it is for us having to sit back and wait to see what's going to happen with our songs for A-less artists and shit that we're working on. So I doing the Instagram lives as a way to be like, all right, cool, most of the time I'm really not reachable. I'm busy 24 hours a day.

Now I'm home. I'm sitting here and I'm just going to give maybe songwriters that normally wouldn't have access to me just because I'm busy or because like, Like maybe the stars haven't aligned for them to be in the room with you or me or someone like that. To just like get on the live and play songs and then I give them feedback. I've given out my number to a bunch of them, you know. I'm just trying to be like, look, well, I have this time. It's kind of like I'll be a volunteer, a mentor, a teacher. I'll just be a set of ears, you know, so I'm really doing it for that, you know.

Yeah. How's being a dad at home? it's it's easy i mean i like i love it so for me um it's really easy because i could i would prefer to spend all my time with with her you know i mean it's crazy so since we did our interview it's amazing how much shit changed for you yeah it's not that things weren't going well then we were doing an interview because you had a bunch of hit songs right but executive producing charlie and seeing what went on with, you know, I don't even think we don't talk anymore to come out, probably attention maybe didn't come out yet, certainly.

It was before that? I think so. Maybe now, I mean, sure somebody will correct us. But, you know, the Maroon 5 shit, you weren't, you know, you weren't executive producing Maroon 5 yet, I don't think. Well, for the record, I technically didn't executive produce Charlie, but on voice notes, I did do 10 out of 12 songs. Yeah, well, that's a...

But still, like, that, you know, that kind of thing, what's going on with Maroon 5, and obviously your involvement with Katie Perry right now, none of those things happen, you know, plus, you know,

obviously you're working on a lot of other stuff. Yeah. What happened? Why did it go from being like, I'm a successful songwriter to being I'm sort of the guy? I mean, you know, I've always kind of,

felt like the guy more than I felt like being a songwriter. I felt like that I was a songwriter. I felt always more of like a connector and more of an A&R brain and maybe like an executive producer mind. So I felt like I had to kind of catch up to that part of my brain by writing songs for a very long time to kind of earn people's trust to kind of let me take the reins with projects. So I think that what happened was after a certain amount

of proving ground that I covered, I started to kind of just raise my hand for more responsibility on projects. And then I was able to luckily deliver when I was given the opportunity, you know? Were any of them a surprise success or failure? I mean, I know in this time you had, you know, singles with a bunch of other artists also five-saddle-summer

and like, you know, just so many different things. Yeah. Have any of them, you know, have any of them for you? been wildly more successful than your expectations or were they meeting your expectations? You know what? I always can kind of tell like I'm pretty good at guessing with other people's songs too, but when my songs in particular, whenever they come out, I can always kind of tell what they're going to do. And I'm always right. Like I've never been like, this song is a hit and it wasn't or been like, this song's not going to work. And then all of a sudden it became a big hit.

I've kind of felt like the same feeling that I get in the room the day that I made it, like whether, depending on what grade level, I grade the experience is usually kind of what grade level the song hits when it comes out. You know, I mean, I had one five seconds of summer song that actually did really well. I expected it like in my brain. I was like, I think this is a top 10. I'm not sure if this is a number one, but I think it's really strong and it's refreshing. it's good. A song called Want You Back that I did with them.

But as the song was like approaching or right at top ten at radio, they had another song that was just exploding on Spotify, which is Youngblood, which I fucking love that song. And they switched them. So I didn't really feel like that one got its full shot, but they did what was best for the group and the record.

And they were right, you know? We talk a lot about you know, that you don't know that you'd always want to live in L.A.? Yeah. You know, is it, do you find all this stuff to be pressure, or is there a point? Like, why, you know, does this stuff make you happy still? It's so crazy. Like, you assume, if you go back to those writers, right, that you're talking about doing the

live stream for, you know, you would think anybody who's working on Charlie Puth, Maroon 5, you know, and Katie Perry, amongst others, would be the happiest songwriter of all time and only is like dancing on cotton candy clouds every day and making, you know, whatever you're doing at home, you know, do you, are you happy with everything? Yeah, I mean, I'm pretty happy, you know, like, I'm happy that, like, I quantify my happiness a little different every year, you know? It's always changing. And, you know, it's like the stupid shit, like life is a double-edged sword, you know,

the more you're doing one thing on one side, it's the opposite on the other. So for me, it's like, at this point, as long as my home life is taken care of, then I'm happy. You know, it's the music, I kind of figured out that, like, I can take rejection pretty well in music. I can deal with artists being a little crazy. I can deal with some fucking whack-ass fucking dude that has no cuts that I ended up on a song with wanting more percentage than everyone else. Like I can deal with the dumb shit. But my family stuff is like, you know, I have a three-year-old.

I have a wife. I have, you know, my parents are on the East Coast. So like, you know, I juggle a lot as it is. So for me, it's more like if my family life is good, then work is good because it's, It's not that I don't care what happens. That's the wrong message. I care more than one should care. And I give my all to projects,

but I've also don't overextend myself to the amount of things I work on. You know what I mean? So it's not like I'm juggling 50 artists and my family. It's like I'm juggling four artists in my family. And then... They just happen to be a very big artist. But... Yeah, they happen to be a big artist.

Starting out, they'd be four artists that were not as big, but you'd still be juggling the same amount of songs. and whatnot. Totally, but you know, it's at the same time, it's like they're, when you, the big artists a lot of times, they're really pros, you know what I mean? So you're dealing more with

probably how they're affected by their life outside of music when they come into the studio, then you are actually dealing with them in the studio just like in that raw creative space, you know? Totally. We hadn't started

friends with pens yet. I think we talked about it, but I don't think we had started that. And we have our first artist, Malia Savetz, now on Warner Records with Friends with Pins. That's right. Do you enjoy being, do you enjoy the business side as much as you enjoy the creative side? Yeah, totally. I mean, I'm always going to write songs. I think that it's like, I want to always keep that sword sharp.

and I love writing songs and being part of the creative process, but I feel like my end goal is to just run a record company. I don't really think that, like, I don't know that I'll be Max Martin and I'll still be able to be dope when I'm his age. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't know. I'm 36, and I already feel like I don't know how much gas I have left in that tank.

I think he's maybe twice, not twice my age. I'm a kid. He's 10 years older than me or something. something like that maybe. I don't know how, but like still having like he's about to have another wave of number ones. Like, you know what I'm saying? I don't know if that's me. Maybe, hopefully it is, but, but I feel like I really more so that I'm that I'm after like how many hits I can rack up in my catalog. It's like I like to, I like mentoring an artist development and seeing things from the beginning and trying to, you know, trying to build from that side.

The word catalog is to songwriters now what the word top line was in like 2004, where it started seeping in once people realize, oh, this is a thing in songwriting. Yeah. You explain what a catalog is and why people are working their ass off to build their catalog. Yeah, I mean, there's been like a fucking gold rush of catalog sales as a recent, and I think it's amazing. And this is just my opinion. Like, I'm not a math analyst or anything like that. I'm not a fucking scientist. I'm just a guy that makes music. But I mean, I can do simple math. And so basically, you know, it's ultimately your income stream. It's your, it's your royalties from your,

from your publishing side and it's your you know you can sell your writer's share as well so basically yeah if you can amass a a catalog or a number of songs that are accumulatively making you money every quarter um then you know you can kind of figure out a way to sell your you know your copyrights or your writer's share or both for kind of like a lump sum mulberry. multiple that normally it would take you a certain amount of years, maybe 10, 20, 30 years to make, or you can kind of get it up front, you know. So, yeah, I mean, I think that's why the word catalog is being... Are you ever going to move to Florida?

Maybe. I don't know that I'd move there full time, but I love Miami. I've been looking at places there. But I don't think about moving for like the tax break, you know? like if it was like my last hurrah then I then maybe like but I feel like that what is it like 13% or something which is a lot that you would save by living there like I don't know that you could make that the same catalog living there as you could like that 13% might offset itself by lack of fucking shit if you're living in Florida you know it's a weird thing man if somebody's going to offer you 10 20 30 million dollars for a catalog some of these crazy numbers that you know

go higher and higher and higher and higher and higher. And you live in a place that doesn't charge you state taxes, 13.3% for California state tax. It's like if you would talk longer you that you could save $4 million by not living in L.A., you'd start questioning whether or not. Right, but it's all timing, right? So like, you know, you want to sell your catalog at the right time, right? So it's like if I build a catalog and I'm like, all right,

now I'm going to go live in Florida for a year so I can claim residency before I sell it, is that catalog even worth the same a year later? And if I live in Florida, is my catalog going to be as big as it is if I live in California because I'm here where every artist is? Yeah, totally.

And also it's like, what are you doing it for kind of thing? Yeah, what are you doing it for, you know? Yeah, you've also had a bunch of hits in country too. Well, one. One country number one with Thomas Red, and then a song with Kane Brown. Brown, yeah. They came out and started doing really well, and I know he plays at his shows, but it hasn't been a single. I hope it is.

Was it fun to have a country number one? Chameless plug there, Kane, if you're listening. Put that shit out as a fucking single. Yeah, it was awesome. I felt like Thomas was like such an awesome artist to have the number one with because he's so he's such a good he's such a good dude and he's like a really positive force in the world, you know, just as a human as well as an artist. And then I also felt like, you know, Joe and Sean and Julian and like really like I felt like that was one country project that like L.A. songwriters really kind of paved the way for me. me to get in on that project, you know? Because I know what's happened

in more in country that they're collaborating with like L.A. writers and pop writers and shit. But I feel like it was, you know, Thomas, to me, from my, from my viewpoint, was kind of the first to kind of open the door to L.A. writers for like his shit, you know? Yeah. What are you going to do the next couple weeks? If we're, you know, how long, how long are we going to be quarantined and what are you going to do?

in the next few weeks. Are you going to be, like you were saying about trying to get all these albums out and stuff like that, is it, are you, are you turning off at all, or are you just straight up hustling the way you normally hustle? Honestly, man, I'm turned way off. I'm like super chill. Like, I got a little mini setup here. Hallat Tracks has been quarantining with me the whole time since day one. So we're on like 14-day quarantine now, which feels pretty good.

I mean, I'm never going to say that I don't have the Roney because I don't know if I have it or not. but I feel pretty confident that I've taken safety measures to make sure me and my family are safe. But yeah, I have like a little mini rig here. I'm like working on productions for people, which is cool. I'm kind of like, anybody has any songs they want like produce. Like I've been doing a lot more production stuff lately. So I'm sitting down. Yeah, really good.

But so I'm really enjoying that and not having the pressure of like coming up with good lyrics and melodies. And then like, send out beats and stuff to people? No, I'm not like making beats, but I'm just kind of like saying like, hey, if anybody has a good song like on guitar, like a good work tape that they haven't like done a production for or if they did a session and the song's good but the production sucks, like send it to me and I'll try something to it, you know? Yeah, that's pretty fun. Yeah, it's awesome. Are you doing other stuff in your life besides music right now? Um, I mean, not really. Just being like a family man, you know? My shit is kind of boring. you know um but i like boring i like safe i like um i like low risk you know what do you do

without sports um man i mean obviously i'm super bummed about basketball you know um about basketball being over uh thankfully i can still watch max and stephen a argue about stupid shit it's so weird when you know if you get used to watching sports center and you're watching sports to turn off from music or doing stuff. It's like that's, that's a lot of musicians use sports as, you know, as a way to turn off and then you just turn it on and it's just more about coronavirus. I know. It's crazy, man.

It's like, it's just weird like turning on ESPN and them having nothing, no clips of any sports to show. I don't, I mean, it's really hard. Do you watch ESPN right now? I mean, I watch first take every morning during the week. So, I mean, I like, I'm mostly into basketball, but I kind of just, like, glance at other sports. I mean, I love fighting, MMA, boxing, basketball is like my shit. So, yeah, I don't know.

I mean, I've heard that they were going to do some fights and, like, empty gyms and stuff with just a ref and fighters in the corners, like, if they're all tested. But who knows? I mean, I think, like, you realize, like, I'm kind of on autopilot all the time when it comes to, like, my routine of, like, going to the studio, taking care of my family. Like, I'm kind of just, you know, I can kind of navigate that with my eyes closed. And being home every day and not leaving the house, it kind of forces me to like entertain myself. But I'm one of those people, like, I will come sit in a room and not turn the TV on and sit

for six hours in silence because of how much shit is going on in my brain. I drive with no music on, you know what I mean? So it's really, it's really easy for me. Hi, babe. My kid. It's really easy for me to keep myself entertained. My wife does not have that same. That same thing.

Well, I was going to ask because one of the things that the situation has, I'm sure I'm not the only one. It's made you, in my normal life, every time there's a break, I think, oh, I can fill it with more work. Right. Like, oh, I'll work on the show. I'll work on the publishing and the podcast, the whatever, one of these other things, if I'm not in a session. Like, I don't know how to just sit still. And this forces you to kind of sit in a room not do anything.

Yeah, I mean, besides, like, leaving my house and going to Orange Grove every day at my studio house, which, I mean, I feel like I could probably start going there. I mean, nobody's went inside there for, like, a really long. long time and it's just me. So I probably could go there. But other than that, like, my routine is honestly not that much different, you know? Are you doing co-writes? Not really. I mean, like, Lau is sending me some songs and mess with. Charlie's sending me some stuff for lyrics and stuff. I mean, mostly kind of just like lyric shit. If people have ideas and want me to kind of help write it, or like asking people to send me songs and not work on the production and send it back. But I

don't know like if I could sit here on fucking face time and like jam a song with someone. I don't know how it's done, but I was talking to some some Nashville people today and they're doing like, oh yeah, I got a session. I got a write from 10 to one and one from two to five. I'm just like, yeah, animals. Like, how are they doing that? Because I feel like that's like, you know, they're going to, I mean, like, I feel like I could do it with John Ryan, you know, someone who's like super can just like pick up a guitar and go, oh, and like just kind of make a song really fast

and I can kind of be like, oh, what about this and that? But like the experience for me of writing a song is not like kind of Nashville style. Like we get up, we talk for 15 minutes and we fucking hammer that shit out, which I like. My process kind of comes with like, we kind of fuck around most of the time. And then, oh, there's an idea.

Let's chase that for a little bit. If it's great, let's continue to chase it for about one or two more hours until I'm ready to go home. Or if it's not great, then we tried. You know? So weird, man. It's such a strange time. I'm not really sure how to think about it.

If it's like this is the, you know, health aside, it's kind of amazing. Yeah. I mean, it's the double-edged sword shit. I keep saying it, but it's like, you know, there's so much good coming out of this. And there's bad coming out of this. I mean, there's people getting fucked up. people are dying. But the world is like also healing at the same time.

Like the, you know, all these like pollution stats are fucking great. But then there's like people are getting sick and it's confusing. You don't know what you don't know what to root for. You know what I mean? Because it's like if you're like, yeah, this virus is doing great. It's not. It's fucking people up. But then on the other side, it's like, you know, there's going to be a silver lining always.

And there's going to be a good and a bad, a yen and a yang. You know what I mean? So I try to just embrace it and fucking do the best I can. I mean, I've like, you know, I ain't going to say any names, but I've given like some money to some like touring musicians that are off work and stuff like that. And like I'm trying to just help people. I mean, besides opening my doors and letting people come in my house, which I ain't doing, anything I can drop off to anybody. You know, if anybody's hurting, I'm trying to help out. But yeah, it's crazy.

I mean, I go to the grocery store and I'm like, I move like a fucking pigeon, you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't, you, you look at somebody like you and like some fucking, uh, somebody's like, like, you catch eyes walking down the same aisle. And it's like you both, it's like a fucking wild west showdown. You're like, ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. You're like, what fucking way am I going to go? It's so weird, you know, or normally you just walk past someone. It's so weird because we were, we went to. the grocery store, we were there, you know, right when it opened and we're six feet away

from the person in front of us. There's already a line, and they designate six feet, like, they already spray-painted, put tape in line. And you're sitting there, and there was a guy two in front who, like, coughed or sneezed or, like, cleared his throat. And I, like, I didn't know if I was supposed to say knock them out or run or what, you know? Yeah, totally. I was like, in the grocery store was like, oh, my God, get this guy as far from as possible. Yeah, I also heard a girl in the grocery store saying that this saying that it was the best time she's ever had

being a hot girl in L.A. because no one is coming up and talking to her. And I was like, that's fair, you know? That's really funny. Well, sick, man. Thanks for hanging with me for a little bit. Yeah, hopefully this was a good fresh up of our of our last talk, I mean. I mean, it's crazy.

This is how we've talked about this a lot. I know we talk a ton. But I think it's different when you see, you know, we've now done almost 100 interviews. Yeah. You know, and you were the third episode or something? Yeah. You know what I mean?

So to go from that, I kind of think, what were we working on? Why were we there? At Conway? Yeah, were we working on We had a Selena Gomez song Come out together We've had a bunch of songs come out together now

Yeah, totally Working on that or something I don't remember why we were there But you know, to go from To go from, you know, the That interview Which I think was a lot You know

obviously sugar had already been really big but that was around that and maybe like the beginnings of some more stuff with Maroon 5 or Charlie but yeah it's just fun to watch man you're still like you're just you're such a hustler and it's fun it's fun you know I said it in that interview but

you know there's just nobody who's smarter in this game and it's funny when it's like you know you've I think you like to play a certain part where it's like anybody who knows you knows how smart

and how good you are at this shit and it's like sometimes you play the part where you're like, nah, you're just, it's just coincidence that you're just in the room all the time. Yeah, I don't think it works that way. Well, you know, I mean, look, at a certain point, I have like really bad imposter syndrome. I've had it for a long time.

But I've really gotten comfortable in my own skin with like my skill set and what I'm able to do. And like, you know, I do. I need good partners. And I think good partners need me, you know. And it's like as long as I have, as long as I'm in the room with someone who can do the shit I can't do, we're in a good, we're going to be in a good space, you know, because I'm a good wing man. Yeah, for sure. But I'm goose. I'm not Maverick.

And that's okay. You know what I mean? you think that but that's not true why do you say that because i like to put the talented person in the driver's seat that's how i get my results i can't put them in the in the in the passenger seat and take the wheel because then i'm not getting what i want because i know where i'm driving that car and it's right off a fucking cliff you know what i mean so i'm like the guy that like if you're racing you want me holding the map next to you kind of going like okay up here we're going to do this up here we're going to do. That's where I shine, you know, and collaboration settings.

Like, I mean, there's been a couple kind of like choruses or things that I've kind of taken the reins on in my career and like have come up with the bulk of it or the most of it. But for the most part, you know, I'm sitting in the room with someone who has a super eclectic palette for music, who it takes like a certain level of marriage between notes and chords and certain things to like please them. And for me, I'm thinking in a much dumber way about, like, is this shit hot or not? You know what I mean? So I feel like I'm a good filter for certain people that have, like, so much going on in their brain musically. And then I always like to lean on people who say that they suck at lyrics and they're only good at this to, like, help with lyrics because I feel like they, just like I have a good

perspective on the music, even though it's not my strong suit, like non-lirical people have really good perspective on lyrics because they're not writing lyrics, they're only hearing them. Yeah. So if they don't think it's great, then I'm not like, oh, you don't know because you don't write lyrics. I actually value the opinion more than I do of maybe another lyricist who might just be trying to outright me or something in the room. Right.

Never going to fucking happen. I used that about Top Gun getting pushed. Yeah, I was psyched about Top Gunn. I just feel since you said your goose. Yeah, I love Top Gun. Yeah. But yeah, man. We make it be great.

All right, cool. I'll talk to you probably in about 15 minutes when we go over some records and shit like that. Yeah, man. We'll talk soon. And thanks for having me back on again. Yeah, we're going to be doing like, you know. We should do one of these where I'm not telling you how to run your business. But we should do one, because you can do like, I think four people in the same screen without like swiping the screen on here, maybe more.

We should get like four songwriters on here and argue about shit. Well, we're going to be doing that. We want to do that in person. So we decided to keep this one, the updates. But that's been like, that is the. We have to debate. We have to debate shit. Yeah.

Well, and it should be topics totally unrelated to music. Yeah, I want to see somebody throw a chair, you know what I mean? Like in their room while they're quarantined? Yeah, just throw a fucking chair, man. Well, we should, we should absolutely do that. And I'm happy to record that and make sure that gets seen by all of our people. Perfect. All right, homie.

I'll talk to you soon. Thank you. Thanks, man. Peace. Okay, bye. Thanks for listening to this episode of And The Writer is. If you want to hear music from this songwriter I just interviewed, be sure to check out our Spotify playlist

or visit our website and the writer is.com if you like what we're doing please subscribe to us you can also like us on Facebook and Twitter And The Writer Is is produced by Joe London, edited by Miles Berg'sma and published by Big Deal Music.

A special thanks to David Silberstein from Mega House Music and Michael White. Until next time, this is Ross Golan.